New Talking-Ally Robot May be an Expert at Getting Your Attention

First Posted: Oct 22, 2015 10:08 AM EDT

A newly created robot may be an expert at getting your attention. The new device actually modifies its speech and body language based on subtle human cues as to whether or not the person is paying attention.

Communication in human language is based on one another's words and body language. For example, we can sense whether the other person is distracted, and we change the course of our conversation and our actions to regain their attention.

Most existing robots use monologue mechanisms, even when engaging in dialogue with a person. For example, they continue speaking in the same way, even if the person isn't quite paying attention. This new robot, though, changes all that.

Scientists have devised a novel robotic communication approach that takes into account the listener's attention. The robot follows a person's gaze and determines if that person is distracted by something in the background or something in their surroundings. The robot actually bends forward and nods if the person is watching or turns its head and looks around if the person is looking elsewhere. These behaviors are then accompanied by speech to regain the person's attention.

But does it actually work? Researchers found that these adaptive interactiosn considerably increased the other party's attention focused toward the robot as compared with the gestures and speech generated without considering the person's gaze.

"Talking-Ally dynamically determines and synchronizes its body language, turn initials, and entrust behaviors within the speech, according to the person's attention coordinates," said Michio Okada, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Our analysis shows that this is significantly more persuasive than generating thee behaviors randomly."

The findings could be huge when creating robots that are meant to grab and retain human attention.

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TagsRobot, robotics, Robots, Robotic, Artificial intelligence, Human, Humans, Tech, Attention, Attention Span